Thick Snow of Dezoris
by Nilke
Summary: Rune recalls his time with Alys, since the constant snow of his homeplanet brought her memory to him. Companion fic to "Vast Sands of Motavia"


**Thick Snow of Dezoris**

After a long training period along the Dezorian wasteland, Rune Walsh, fifth Generation Lutz, was finally resting at home.

Elder Hasari had briefed him about the latest news around the Mansion, and had leave him at ease to recover, under the reminder (or menace?) of a meeting the following day to see what were his thoughts for the future of the Mansion.

Right then, he wanted to rest, then worry about something that he knew Hasari enjoyed more doing than himself. He would find a nifty way to leave those duties in his hands for one last time…

He got himself a fuming cup of tea in his hands, watching the thick snowflakes falling down over the Mansion's yards…

They were like teardrops.

Rune sighed. Why did he come up with that image? He had been active until a few hours ago… there was nothing in him that made him recall someone crying.

Dezoris surely was a melancholic planet…

He took another sip of hot tea, and kept on staring at the window, unconsciously.

They sure looked like tears.

"Just as the tears that Alys must have shed when she found herself all alone, again", an inner voice said, out of the blue.

Rune sighed, and left his cup of tea over the table.

So that was it.

He was thinking about Alys, which he hardly ever did, that he recalled.

But why was Alys popping up in his mind like that, after all those years?

"She's growing older, you know", his inner voice went on, more disgusting than before. "And you, too. You ain't a brat anymore"

So it had to be her birthday, which he recalled her all of a sudden.

And his conscience was turning into a bastard.

Now, not only he had to deal with Lutz memories, that his Conscience (with capital "C", please) had decided to take that strategy to be heard.

If some physician were to talk to him, he wouldn't let him return to the Mansion, but would put him right into the Mental Patients area of the clinic.

He took another sip, and thought about what his Conscience had brought up with him.

Yes, he wasn't a kid anymore. Yes, he had behaved like a scared kid at that moment. Yes, time kept on moving for both of them, and he would want to know how she's doing. He would like to talk to her, and apologize, in some way, if she didn't tear him into pieces, and well-done so.

But there were his duties as a Lutz first of all.

Just like that time.

He had taken the duty of becoming the fifth man in inheriting Lutz's memories when he was barely 15 years old, and what a ground-moving event that had been. Nothing seemed right. He didn't know how to control those memories from other people in his mind, and he didn't have the physical strength or experience to cope with the magical knowledge that came with the memories.

Looking at it from a more distant point, he had been insane to take that duty so young. And the Elders should have seen it, too. It had been a great thing that he could pull it off rather well.

Maybe that was why he had been chosen: because he could, eventually, take the ship to a safe port.

How funny, talking in a sea-like image, in a frozen world.

Other of the ironies in his life.

At the Mansion, he felt like a stranger. As if something within him told him to escape into the wild.

In Motavia, he was a stranger, clearly. And he would never feel like a native, even if he tried it.

Luckily, the Elders agreed with him that a training in the sand planet of Motavia would be really helpful to broaden his horizons. So, they sent him, through magic, to the remaining planet on Algol. He would stay for a while there. They told him to travel to Aiedo, and to find an escort at the Hunter's Guild for an uncertain amount of time.

And that's how he met her. She was the trainee of Galf, the Hunter that had taken his job. Evidently, the man was fine with taking advantage of that "uncertain amount of time" aspect of the request, that he didn't mind in training two youths instead of one.

They had spent a marvelous time together. Both Alys and Rune were getting stronger and better at their weapon-usage and techniques use. They had met several people, heard uncountable stories, and lived through interesting and incredible missions.

Until the day that Galf got his chest-opened by some monster, in the middle of the desert.

It hadn't been just a big wound, but it got infected. Rune got to a point where he couldn't do anything else for him. Neither the local doctor they had found, several days after the attack.

Galf was at peace with himself and with life, but felt sorry for Alys. The young girl was really attached to him, and he didn't want her to suffer greatly after he was gone. He asked Rune both to look after her when he was gone, and not to let her get so dependent on someone else.

Rune promised him that, and Galf could finally die at peace.

And Rune found himself in a terrible situation. He couldn't leave Alys so soon, that would break her heart even more. Besides, his mission as Lutz demanded him to return to Dezoris. He had been kicking that deadline infinite times, when communicating telepathically with the Elders. This time, they had set an irreplaceable date.

The only relief he had was that he had been able to stay for a while more. Not the amount of time he would have wanted to.

But he never got the courage to tell her first that he had to leave. Well, he got it, but it had been more like a note left over the table rather than a real chat.

He just told her his mission needed him somewhere else, and that he couldn't do anything about it. The following day he would even be in Dezoris, not even in Motavia.

Alys had heard those words, and remained speechless.

And then, the next day, he left earlier.

Yes, he had acted like a scared child.

His personal wishes and goals had to be buried, like the falling snow that piled up in the garden, by the goals and obligations of being a Lutz.

There was no other way out, in the name of a greater good for everyone in Algo. Not in the Mansion, not in Dezoris, but in all of Algol.

And so, he got transported to the land of ice, where his Conscience remained frozen for a good time, like everything in that cursed planet.

It had been tough living in Dezoris.

Alys would be delighted to see the snow, as she was fed up of the grains of sand that surrounded her, every single day.

Yes, it was something nice, if it weren't a constant thing.

He sighed again, and cursed Dezoris, once more.

If it didn't make you prone to depression, it made you think about unwanted things…

There was no use keeping on reminding that stuff. He could do nothing to revert it back. He would do so if he were to be given the chance, but that was out of the question.

He just had to pray for her forgiveness. Because he knew she had been able to grow and find her path in life. Galf had been too fearful because she was relatively close to the death of her parents by that time, but he knew that Alys was a strong woman.

He wondered why he was feeling that urge of going away, like at that time, not so long after gaining Lutz's memories.

Could it be that he would be able to return to Motavia? Could it be that he would be in need there?

He stared at the Telepathy Ball, floating its golden circle on the middle of the table.

However, it just kept on floating, no extra-glitter giving him an answer, or something like that.

He finished his tea, and stared at the window, once more.

He was looking forward for that day.

He wanted to face Alys, to see that he had been right about her being strong.

Even if he couldn't change anything because of his mission, he wanted to see her, for the last time.

His feelings had to be kept under piles and piles of other things, just like the snow of Dezoris piling up outside. He had the certainty that he wasn't the only Lutz in suffering love-related problems, but he still didn't want to give up so easily

Even if every thing he had done, had made him a step further from her.

None of them had received training in love stuff, they did what they could.

But he would face her as if nothing happened, because it would be surprising to her if he didn't act like the usual jerk she had known him to be.

It was strange, his Conscience was silent now. Evidently, it was satisfied.

He stared at the snow, and was more certain than ever that trouble was going to arise in short time… He could feel it.

Surely Hasari, the remaining Elder, would feel it too, and both would make the preparations to send him off to Motavia once more.

He wanted to close the window, to stop thinking about Alys, but he was surrounded of statues of another girl, who made Lutz feel more or less the same than him now.

It was futile trying to escape.

Rune was starting to suspect that the Lutz function came with celibacy included, yet not recognized openly. But it was that there was always something more important first.

There had always been a mission, in whichever timeline you wanted to check. There had always been something greater to fight for, something to attend before his feelings. Either as Lutz, or as Rune, or as whoever happened to be in Lutz's feet.

He knew he couldn't show up at Alys' home and tell her that he was sorry, just like that. He couldn't even promise her anything. But he would try to help her.

It would be difficult to approach her, but they were now grown people, and she wouldn't throw her slicer at him, would she? Anyway, he shouldn't be worrying about it, he would surely dodge it. He would have to use his Esper prowess then.

He smirked. He would have to do all his best to conquer her over. Not that he was so against that idea… only that he was fearful his mission as Lutz would get in between, like always.

He stared at the teardrop-like snow. It piled all over the place. And he felt as if his feelings were like the ground down the snow. It would be a mess over it, but he needed the strong sun of the Motavian sky to be able to melt that strong ice defense.

There was no way out.

He was returning to Motavia.

And he didn't feel bad about it now.

The end

Notes: Rune, along Alys, has to be one of my favorite characters ever. I tried writing some fic before, but it sucked. Decided to try another time, and came up with this. So, in more ways than one, this is like a "companion fic" to the Alys side (of a part) of the story, "Vast Sands of Motavia".


End file.
